


Kate's Healing Touch

by darius44



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Arcadia Bay, Canon Rewrite, Episode 1 happens but Max saves Chloe because She steals nathan's gun, F/F, Gen, Healing, Love, Love and healing, Recovery, SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 1-5, SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE LIFE IS STRANGE 1, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, Tori - Freeform, abusive language, darker themes, life is strange - Freeform, this work starts around episode 2 and aftermath
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-05-28 21:58:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15058682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darius44/pseuds/darius44
Summary: All actions have consequences. For Victoria Chase, she almost watched someone die of her own actions.Max and Chloe must repair their relationship.Chloe wants to move on from Rachel Amber.Nathan wants to forget, but also make amends.Kate Marsh tried to heal from her suicide attempt.Everyone must try and be better. Sometimes, this is harder than anyone ever thought, and surprisingly, strange people can help you more than you ever thought.





	1. Dear Kate

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya!  
> TRIGGER WARNING!!  
> Several chapters including the first chapter has:  
> Self harm  
> Suicidal thoughts and an attempt (Chapter 1 only, mentioned later)  
> The rest of the chapters deal with various forms of recovery relating to PTSD, self hate, and suicide attempts.

“Dear Kate..” started Victoria, gingerly scribbling in her elegant writing the first of (hopefully) many letters.  
She stopped and looked; the paper was already sodden wet.  
How could she dare to write someone whom she had pushed to the Brink?  
A tear landed on her wrists, and Victoria gasped-screamed, clutching her old wounds. The cutting had stopped, but their marks were always there.  
Marks to remind her of her ‘sin’, of her ‘failure’ to stop Kate from Jumping. If it wasn’t for Max…  
Victoria blinks back her tears, and starts again…  
“I am…” the red ink soaks into the paper, spreading like blood the Victoria spilt.  
Well, almost spilt.  
The tears won’t stop, but Victoria rubs her eyes, and carries on.  
I am sorry, Kate.  
I am truly, truly sorry.  
This is the end for me.  
I hope you can forgive me.  
Because I can never forgive myself.  
Always in Infamy I guess,  
Victoria Chase  
Victoria starts to heave and shake as she finishes. She looks at the nib of her elegant $200 pen. Effective, styled and… Sharp.  
Sniffing, Vic places the tip onto her neck.  
She is shaking so, so much.  
She doesn’t even remember anymore where she was supposed to stab herself.  
But she knows that maybe, after all the nightmares, this is the only way.  
She smiles sadly to herself.  
Kate was still in Hospital, alive and happy with Chloe and Max, and here was Victoria chase, scribbling blood letters and feeling sorry for herself.  
Kate deserved to live, and love again.  
Victoria herself… well, the pointy bit of the pen was quite inviting right now.  
**Knock, Knock!** She froze; no one was to know she was even on campus.  
**Knock, Knock!, Knock!** Eyes wide and horrified, she looked at the silhouette on her monitor.  
Kate Marsh.  
She looked smaller, more bony, and she looked worried, constantly looking around, raising and putting her hand down, hesitating to really bash the door.  
Victoria stifled a cry; no! this wasn’t what she needed.  
Still, her hand didn’t move to her exposed neck; she merely lowered it.  
‘You could just let her see you suffer’ said a dark, deep corner of her mind.  
Victoria coughs, and hears a surprised intake of breath outside of her door.  
**Knock, Knock!, KNOCK, THUMP!!** The knocking is harder, more urgent. Victoria smiles, and picks up her pen.  
“PS: I am sorry for what you might see.”  
With that, she gets up holding the letter; she surveys the door.  
**Knock, Knock!, THUMP!!, THUMP!!** “Victoria! Please!” says a voice, soft, urgent and… scared.  
Victoria remains still, clutching her pen and her bloody letter, an apology of the testament of her cruel legacy.  
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK  
The door is being bashed, and all Victoria can do while blood runs down her wrist is look.  
Blood?!  
She doesn’t remember anymore.  
Darkness encircles her vision- where is she? Who is she?  
Did she really hate herself that much? To forget her cruelty to herself?  
It didn’t matter anymore; she feels faint.  
She sinks back down, her vision blurry, all sounds suddenly muffled.  
When did she stab herself? She doesn’t remember.  
She is thirsty.  
So, so thirsty…  
Kate…  
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!!!  
**BYOOOM!!!**  
The door is broken open just as Victoria’s head nods off.  
Silence.  
“VICTORIA!! OH MY GOD!! VIC!!!”  
Screams, more screams, someone falling over.  
Pain.  
Victoria opens her eyes, finding herself on the floor.  
It smells of blood and Paris perfumes.  
A face; her face.  
Weeping, uncontrollably.  
Victoria must find strength. To give… the last of herself… the only thing left to give…  
“Chloe!! GET DAVID HERE! COME RIGHT NOW!! Victoria!! She… SHE—tried to- her-herself!! Chloe… please…PLEASE!!”  
Max is screaming crying into her phone, shaking, and now sinking down against the floor, holding onto Kate.  
Kate is holding her, isn’t she? Kate is holding her murderer.  
Victoria feels sick, but comfortable.  
The warmth of Kate’s hands is enough.  
Everything is dark nowl just the warmth on her cheeks. Victoria is so very thirsty. She cant feel her legs or chest anymore.  
But she can feel the wound on her left wrist.  
‘How very silly of you’ spoke a malicious little voice, ‘to think death is the answer… it isn’t! its just another way to run away! COWARD!’  
Victoria stifles a cry, and she hears sharp intakes from far away.  
“Max!! she’s still alive!!” shouts Kate, half crying.  
“Lets get her up!” whispers Max, and Victoria feels tiny hands trying to hoist her up.  
“Oi, leave her to me!” says a new voice, strong, powerful, and fierce, but so far away.  
‘you need help, little Chase bi--’ said the malicious voice.  
“Victoria! LISTEN TO ME! YOU ARE GOUNG TO LIVE!! FOR ME!! I PARDON YOU, YOU HEAR ME!!?” Shouts the voice.  
Kate, again.  
Voices… again.  
So far, so quiet, but urgent, fierce… protective.  
Victoria didn’t deserve protection or good treatment.  
‘But Kate pardoned me didn’t she’ asks Victoria of herself, and then heaves with another cry. She repeats the question to herself and begins to cry in earnest.  
Oh god… everything hurts.  
‘Kate, make it stop… please… I am sorry…’ thought Victoria, her vision a bright blur of red, blue and brown.  
‘Kate… save me!’


	2. Broken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for my english, it isn't that great. Please leave a comment if you want to say something.

Lights… so many lights.  
Victoria didn’t know where she was but she knew Kate was with her.  
The warm hands never left her.  
She had felt Chloe’s incredible physique hoist her and run to an ambulance, huffing, heaving, and crying.  
Why would Chloe cry over Victoria?  
Oh yea, thinks Victoria, because we once knew each other.  
And Chloe cared- dammit, she cared more than anyone ever thought she could.  
Pain.  
Needles, so many needles.  
Engines, the smell of gasoline.  
Victoria noticed a new and larger hand on her, and through her blurred vision, saw blue hair.  
They cared.  
They fucking cared??  
Victoria held on to the feelings, the smell, the physical touches, the way the engines rumbled and roared, the distant sirens, and her own vision.  
She wanted to live.  
She didn’t know how long she stared before she just… didn’t.  
\--  
Kate smiles for the first time, reaching out, petting Vic’s sweaty forehead.  
She sleeps, Kate thinks.  
But there is a fear behind Kate’s eyes.  
Max and Chloe don’t missi it, as they had all seen it in each other.  
Would Vic make it?  
Kate wonders, stroking, petting, caressing.  
She shouldn’t even care.  
But God made her a gentle and good person, and so she does.  
Chloe strokes Victoria’s hair, and Max keeps a ginger hand on the waist.  
Victoria moans, sinking into Kate’s hand.  
“Still Alive!” yells Kates mind into her healing mind.  
Kate would not let Victoria take her own life, not now, not ever.  
‘But why?’ aska a dark voice.  
‘Because she is a good person’ Kate tells herself firmly, her expression hardening.  
The voice is silent.  
\--  
‘what the fuck what the fuck oh god oh god is she going to be okay’ is the mantra in Chloe’s head.  
Panic, stilled and staved off by the cool of Victoria’s head.  
Victoria…  
The woman who drove Kate to the edge.  
The woman who deserved pain.  
But they couldn’t see her like this.  
Pathetic.  
Weak.  
Covered in her own blood.  
Chloe should just punch her to get her anger out.  
Instead, Chloe stops and closes her eyes, rubbing her eyes.  
Victoria deserved better.  
How? Chloe doesn’t know.  
But she never wants to see Max or Kate scream like that.  
Tears, small, unassuming, prick at her eyes.  
To think Chloe herself had almost cut again last night.  
What would Max do if she saw the cuts?  
Those loving blue eyes… they would weep.  
More tears, rolling down her cheeks.  
Chloe doesn’t know what to think anymore.  
She will do better, with everyone.  
And she will show her cuts to Max, old ones, a year old.

Chloe gasps; a small hand is on her shoulder.  
Kate looks on at her, sweet and sad.  
Chloe makes a coughing sound, and then collapses onto Kate.  
So many tears come, but Chloe will not stop.  
She will heal, no matter what.  
\--  
Max doesn’t expect it, but in the tight space of the van, she hold Chloe's Other hand.  
Her best friend is crying her heart out.  
Max cries too.  
She feels weak, her hands are pale.  
Chloe, my dear…  
Oh Chloe…  
Max weeps too.  
She weeps of Kate, who almost died were it not for Max.  
She weeps for leaving Chloe.  
She begins to wail, remembering Kate’s pained face.  
She sobs for Victoria, alone… dead (or so she had thought).  
What would become of them?  
She does not know.  
The tears come, and she grabs Victoria’s hand.  
Max doesn’t know anymore what to do.  
Her eyes move to Chloe’s half embrace with Kate.  
She gasps.  
An ugly cut runs along Chloe’s neck, and another above her thumb.  
Oh no… no…  
Max doesn't stop crying.  
Her dearest Chloe...  
\--  
Weeping, sobbing,wails.  
The pain in her phest grows as victoria stirs.  
No one notices.  
They all weep.  
More pain, bright, angry… hurtful, in Victoria’s chest.  
They weep for her she thinks.  
Is she dead?  
She doesn’t care.  
She focuses on the pain.  
… and the hands.  
She isn’t dead, but she wishes she hadn't wanted to be.  
Where were they?  
She doesn’t care.  
Each new sob tugs at her, calling for comfort, for answers.  
Answers she does not have.


	3. Prayers in Limbo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria is remains in Limbo

Something breaks, and she screams, but there is sound.  
She is still… too still.  
Where are the hands? Where is the warmth?  
Cold… so cold.  
Metal, ropes, and... a scalpel?  
Victoria expects it to hurt.  
Instead all she feels is a sensation of being cut.  
It’s her hand- she feels the blade cut her skin; clean, precise, and measured.  
What were they doing?  
“Will she be okay?”  
A voice floats outside the door. Or near it.  
Kate.  
Kate sounded worried.  
“She will, Kat” says another voice.  
Silence.  
More Silence, long, oppressive, overbearing.  
The scalpel keeps cutting and cutting.  
“--the nurse just said she’ll never be able to--”  
“What the FUCK do you mean Kate??”  
Voices, snatches of a talk from a faraway people.  
“I made my decision doctor”  
“MAX, Look at Chloe! NO CHLOE PLEASE PLEASE, please you don’t have to DO THIS!!”  
Victoria does a sharp intake of breath, and the scalpel stops.  
Still, everything is so still.  
Sounds of crying, pleading.  
Footsteps.  
Something dragging, heavy, forlorn; hot breaths struggling for air.  
“CHLOE!!!”  
Victoria’s breath is caught again, and she dares open her eyes.  
Bright!! BRIGHT!!  
She lays there.  
Oh god, she is laying there.  
Blue hair, blue beanie and… red…  
Victoria tries to speak, but she can only gaze.  
Max and Kate, frozen in place above an unconscious Chloe.  
The blue shifts, and she breathes.  
Chloe is alive, at least.  
Victoria does not have much time before she feels something strange,  
Where has the air gone?  
She breathes- or tries to.  
Again, and again.  
Oh god, where is the air?!  
Her body jerks, and she screams.  
Or tries to, and no everyone is at her neck.  
“She’s choking on herself! I need a thermo-needle stat!” yells someone.  
The brightness is fading.  
Victoria knows she still has a few minutes- she isn’t a star swimmer for nothing.  
She looks to her right, and she sees a face.  
Chloe looks back steadily, holding an ice pack.  
She’s saying something.  
Kate appears, laying a cool hand on Victoria’s unworthy forehead.  
Max appears too, holds her hand, teary eyed.  
They’re all saying something.  
Silence.  
They are now mouthing something animatedly, willing, hoping her to listen.  
The world is fading.  
Victoria feels her mouth handled and vaguely feel a tube somewhere near throat.  
She no longer feels Kate’s or Max’s hand.  
The world is dark now.  
How strange.  
She doesn’t feel breathless anymore, and Victoria feels happy for that.  
She begins to make out faces in the dark.  
Her secret puppy, taken too soon via a car, Dorchester.  
Its smiling, barking.  
Or would be, if Victoria wasn’t deaf for some reason.  
Pain, bright and new, somewhere on Victoria’s chest.  
It is ignored. It’s just Death, probably.  
The little Shepard forever puppy stops, tilting its head.  
It barks again and comes a little closer.  
Another tug, sharper, and clearer.  
Victoria’s sees the puppy close to her, calling to her.  
It is so easy to reach out.  
\---  
“HEAVE!! And PUSH!!” yells Chloe as she and a doctor administer CPR.  
Chloe’s unusual ripped frame presses down, firmly, determined.  
Victoria heaves, but doesn’t breathe.  
Chloe pushes again, and Victoria’s arm moves.  
Chloe keeps going and pushes again.  
Victoria starts to cough, and Chloe pushes down on the ribs again.  
‘God, you’re delicate’, thinks Chloe.  
Max holds the oxygen mask over Victoria.  
She gently pumps the bag, to make her comatose friend breathe.  
Chloe heaves, and she feels something in the chest below her.  
A heartbeat.  
Max gasps, looking at Chloe.  
She nods and pumps the bag as gently but as quickly as she can.  
\--  
Pain, silence, and more pain.  
Such was Victoria’s world.  
\--  
Kate sat near Max, Bible open, praying.  
The book is wet but drying.  
Kate can no longer weep.  
She prays to the lord.  
she looks up every time they make progress.  
She wills Victoria to live.  
\--  
\--  
“I just need you to wake up” says Kate, slow and steady.  
“please wake up from your frozen sleep” she continues.  
“Oh Lord, though her lights fade, you promised to help your people in our hour of need,” says Kate, sombre tone too quiet for the rest to hear.  
Who’s crying?  
Oh!  
Its Kate herself.  
“L-Lord… please… I’m trying to hold on… save her… please, I beg you…”  
Kate’s cries are silent, but she feels calmer now.  
Maybe the Lord does listen to His people, after all.  
Kate’s faith remains strong, resolute. For Victoria, she must be strong.  
\----  
In the dark, there are only memories.  
Lonesome fears that belong to a girl on her deathbed.  
What is time here, but infinite in its own dimension?  
Victoria feels like she is breathing, but it is not her.  
Her half open eyes show her a brunette tensely pumping her lungs.  
Victoria smiles internally.  
Max is her new hero.  
Everything is so magnified here- all her fears and hopes.  
She fears she will lose control of what she wants.  
But she focuses on what she really wants, as the pain and breath comes through, erratic, but dependent in their own way.  
She wants to LIVE, dammit!  
She only has one goal now.  
She sees it, as only a messy bun and a small chaste smile.  
She wants to live.  
She wants to go home… to Kate Marsh, her true saviour.


	4. Loved

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the chapter is so short! I am very busy!

“I love you” Victoria muttered into the silent room.  
She didn’t know whether or not the void would listen, or indeed, reply.  
A small intake of breath- surprise, in its very essence- and a small reply:  
“You are loved,” Kate smiles, stroking Victoria’s hair as she sits next to her bully’s bed, “You are loved, Vic”  
They had been lucky- Chloe’s intervention to break Victoria’s ribs for her to breathe was rude and unconventional, but the doctor did notice something he had missed; Victoria had been dying, choking on her own blood.   
The man lay broken and weeping outside, his own sense of self shattered because he overlooked something so minor. And a woman had shown him his weakness; sheer hubris.   
In any case, the girls saved Vic’s life, and now she was recuperating.  
Victoria breathed with difficulty still, though it was nothing like the first hour. she was patched up, and had a whole bunch of tubes running all over her body.  
Kate was thankful there was colour in V’s face too.  
\--  
Victoria’s world was… blank.   
She didn’t really think of anything, except… the warmth and love on her hand.  
After a while it would leave, and then it would come back.  
It was the only thing she could concentrate on.  
All she had left was the Void, after all.  
There were voices too, sometimes.  
The first- and the most prized yet difficult- was of her Victim, Kate Marsh.  
Kate had been praying, crying, beseeching for Victoria to live.   
Turns out Victoria herself had been in a coma, as evidenced by the next voice; the soft determined notes of Max.  
Max had come in and talked at length with Kate.  
She was… angry at Victoria.   
And yet, Victoria would agree- Victoria was the true monster here.  
Regardless of Victoria’s monster status, another voice had soon interrupted Max’s furious bickering; the deep melody of Chloe, playful and… pained.  
Chloe never got along with Victoria, particularly after the Chemistry assignment incident. And yet, Chloe cared, somehow.   
Or maybe it was just Chloe was in such pain she never wanted to lose someone else… again.  
“Max, Stop!” Chloe had said in a low, almost dangerous voice.  
Something about the voice stopped Max short, or at least put the rant on hold.  
“What would you have me do, Chloe? Let her be??” asked Max, in an actually scary voice, full of venom and deep fury.  
“She stays, Max” said Kate, before Chloe could reply.  
“Chl- what?? Kate, what the Fu--” Max started, indignant.  
“Language, Max” said Kate smoothly, her voice strained.  
Kate cleared her throat, and the warmth returned to Victoria.  
“She is a good person, Max. Just misguided… she regrets everything. She needs us, more than ever” said Kate, almost sweetly, “And Chloe, she’s… She is a bad person, but only as far as we allow her to be. We have to be her paragon foils, her mirrors, and her guides.”  
Chloe and Max inhaled dramatically at the honesty of Kate’s answer.  
A new warmth joined Victoria’s left hand, and a low sad sigh was what Victoria felt.  
“I can’t… I can’t let her hurt you again, Kate…” said Max, stroking Vic’s hand.   
“I can’t, either!” Chloe huffed, indignantly.  
“I know you won’t,” said Kate, her tone slow and measured.  
Victoria smiled, or what she assumed was a—  
“SHE’S SMILING HOLY SHIT!!!” shouted Chloe, leaping and crashing into the bed, and throwing her arms around Vic.  
Kate heard a sharp inhale and giggle too, and looked at Max and Chloe; neither of them had any sign of smiling.  
Kate looked next at the face.  
She met the doe eyes of Victoria Chase, resident bully and monster.  
Kate… felt something in her heart.  
Vic was alive, and Kate was there to witness it.  
Vic had been saved.  
Kate clutched her chest, feeling suddenly hot and shy.


End file.
